Watercolor Road ✔

Chapter 12: Holidays Are the Worst

As much as Julia pretended, going to the store after school wasn't as bad as a punishment as she thought it would be. She did her homework in the back office, ignoring the employees but appreciating when someone would sneak her a candy bar.

The rest of the semester passed in a blur. Halloween and Thanksgiving came and went, but instead of celebrating with her friends, Julia just took the holidays to spend more time in her room. She went to school, but just for school. She didn't talk to anyone and kept to herself. After school, she went to Rory's store and did her homework. The only thing driving her to keep her grades up was the thought of college applications. She worked on those whenever she had downtime, determined to get out of Redwater after her senior year. Megan and Jack tried to get her to open up for a little while, but eventually, they stopped making the effort and only gave her small, unreturned smiles in the hallway.

Julia had barely even looked at Will since he overheard her nasty comments. And yet, she still caught him checking to make sure she was at school. They only spoke when they absolutely had to during English, and Julia was grateful that none of their next books required a project as intensive or collaborative as Pride and Prejudice.

She also still had to go to her appointments with Eliza. Julia tried skipping them again, but the school threatened her with academic probation if she didn't, so she gritted her teeth and dealt with the 45 minutes every week. They weren't helping; despite the fact that Julia had opened up to Eliza about Jack's situation, she had reverted back to the way the sessions used to go and just killed time until it was time to leave.

The only person who tried to keep things going normally was Rory. He always welcomed her promptly when she entered the store, drove her home every evening, and made her dinner, even if she refused to eat with him.

After the last art class of the semester, Julia was getting her stuff packed up as Darleen passed back their final art pieces.

"I hope you do better next semester, Julia," Darleen said quietly as she handed Julia her work.

Julia grabbed the piece and looked at the grade. Julia was Darleen's worst nightmare—she was stagnant in her art. Not caring, Julia stuffed the piece in her backpack and left the room.

While the rest of the school headed to lunch, Julia walked toward the exit, thankful that her off period allowed her to start her winter break early. Her break, however, would mostly consist of eating ice cream and binging various TV shows.

As she headed down the hall to exit the school, a voice called after her. "Hey, Julia, wait up!"
Julia reluctantly stopped and turned around to see Megan hurrying toward her.

"Hey," Megan said again as she caught up to Julia.

"Hey," Julia said, wanting nothing more but to get away. "What's going on?"

"Look," Megan said, looking as uncomfortable as Julia felt. "I know we haven't talked much, but I mean it is Christmas. And I just wanted to let you know, my family usually has this party for New Year's. It's big and fancier than it needs to be, I mean it's basically a fancy dinner party, but it would be cool if you would come. It's nice to have someone to talk to among all the adult stuff. I mean, Jack will be there, too."

Julia shrugged. "I don't know."

"At least think about it?" Megan asked hopefully.

"Yeah, sure," Julia said. "I'll think about it."

"Thanks." Megan smiled. "I hope you have a good break, Julia."